July 16 (Bloomberg) -- OZ Minerals Ltd., Australia’s third-biggest copper producer, is among companies that made final bids
for Rio Tinto Group’s Northparkes mine in Australia, according
to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Final offers for Rio Tinto’s 80 percent of the copper and
gold mine were made at the end of last month, and at least two
bidders are now holding talks with Rio Tinto over the purchase,
said two people, asking not to be identified as the information
is private. A decision on a preferred bidder may be made as soon
as this month, one person said.

Japan’s Sumitomo Corp., which has the remaining 20 percent
stake, has the right to match any bid, the people said.
Macquarie Group Ltd. is helping the world’s second-largest
mining company find a buyer for the stake, which Citigroup Inc.
valued at about $800 million in a February report.

Rio Tinto is seeking to offload assets including its
aluminum operations in Australia and a Canadian iron ore
division as Chief Executive Office Sam Walsh cuts costs. The
London-based company, which Deutsche Bank AG estimates may reap
about $10 billion from the asset sales, said last month that it
decided to keep its diamond business after failing to find a
buyer.

Rachel Eaves, a spokeswoman for OZ Minerals, and Bruce
Tobin, a spokesman for Rio Tinto both declined to comment on the
sale of Northparkes.

KKR, Carlyle

The mine, at which Rio Tinto also operates a training
center for underground mining, mined 21,800 metric tons of
copper in the six months through June, a 7 percent decrease from
last year. Rio Tinto considered selling Northparkes in 2009 and
held onto the mine after copper and gold prices rose.

Buyout firms KKR & Co. and Carlyle Group LP, which
considered bidding for the stake in Northparkes, are no longer
vying for the assets, two other people said.

Melbourne-based OZ Minerals operates the Prominent Hill
mine in South Australia state and is building the A$3 billion
($2.8 billion) Carrapateena project it acquired in 2011. In
April, it cut its output target by 14 percent following a land
slip at the mine.

OZ Minerals is the largest shareholder in Perth-based gold
and copper explorer Sandfire Resources NL, holding 19.2 percent
of the A$903 million company, data compiled by Bloomberg show.